Club Wikipedia improves content on science and innovation

For the second consecutive year, the ‘Club Wikipedia’ improves the contents on science and innovation in Spanish Wikipedia, thanks to its organisers: the Fundación para el conocimiento madri+d and Wikimedia Spain, together with different universities in Madrid. During the last academic year 2023-2024, the Club Wikipedia was continued by the universities Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) and Complutense de Madrid (UCM) (specifically its Faculty of Veterinary Medicine).

The collaboration between the Fundación para el conocimiento madri+d and Wikimedia Spain is reflected in the execution of different activities and academic training throughout the academic year, aimed at creating and improving scientific content on Spanish Wikipedia, based on the model developed during the 2022-23 academic year.

Club Wikipedia Results: Science and Innovation

URJC

Under the tutelage of Professor José María García de Madariaga, the URJC developed a in-person workshop with its PhD students at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. The programme offered students a tour in four two-hour sessions of the keys that condition the processes of scientific communication in the digital era, and an exploration of some of the challenges that must be faced by any science professional who wants to communicate and disseminate science. The workshop was attended by a total of 17 students, eleven male and six female.

It should be noted that this activity is part of the annual programme of the UCC+I and has the collaboration of the Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT) – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

At the beginning of 2024, this university developed the course “Wikipedia in the classroom: Tools for teaching innovation”, aimed at teachers, in which 24 people participated (13 men and 11 women). The course was designed by Florencia Claes, professor and president of Wikimedia Spain, who also taught it, together with professor José María García de Madariaga. It lasted 10 hours divided into four synchronous meetings and an individual tutorial for each participant. The course offered training on Wikipedia and its free knowledge ecosystem from an educational perspective, with the aim of raising awareness of the possibilities that this tool for the collective construction of knowledge and memory offers for use as a resource for teaching innovation in projects with students.

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the UCM

On the other hand, the UCM Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, through its Scientific Dissemination and Transfer Unit (UdcVet), implemented in its Doctoral School (EDUCM) the course “Learning to disseminate and transfer scientific knowledge through Wikipedia”. The course lasted 10 hours, was taught online and involved a total of 16 students, 8 women and 8 men.

It was coordinated by the Faculty’s Vice-Dean for Research, Transfer and Library, María Arias, and was tutored by Eva Ramos and Rosa María García, together with Ana Casado from the UCM’s Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+I) and Florencia Claes; in addition to the support given by Rubén Ojeda, project manager at Wikimedia Spain.

The aim of this training activity was to raise the visibility of science in Spanish and increase the quality of the information available, as well as to improve users’ confidence in Wikipedia by publishing scientific terms that have been created by experts in the field.

How did the Club Wikipedia begin?

The collaboration between Wikimedia Spain and the Fundación para el conocimiento madri+d was born in 2021 with the educational project Madridmasd, based on the creation and design proposed by Florencia Claes.

Its main objective was to reverse the lack of content on science and innovation in Spanish on Wikipedia. This collaboration was carried out through the figure of the Itinerant Wikipedian, represented at the time by professors Elios Mendieta Rodríguez and Rafael Ruiz.

After the good results achieved during this first period, in spring 2022 the creation of Club Wikipedia was proposed for the academic year 2022-23, and thus, to continue the collaboration between both entities with the aim of further promoting the creation of scientific content on Spanish Wikipedia with the involvement of universities.

Club Wikipedia at universities

Accordingly, the development of Wikipedia Clubs was proposed in each university, led by one or more people from the same institution, previously trained by Wikimedia Spain. The aim was to involve students and teachers in an active and interdisciplinary way, leaving the classroom and opening it up to the rest of the university.

Thus began the development of each club. A total of four clubs were formed: one at the URJC, one at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and two at the UCM (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Faculty of Chemical Sciences).

At the UAM it was developed under the tutelage of Professor Concepción Torres Navas, supported by other people from the scientific culture unit, such as Rosa Alvarado and Iván Narváez. At the URJC, the tutoring was in charge of Professor José María García de Madariaga; while at the Faculty of Chemistry of the UCM, it was coordinated by Ángel Gutiérrez Alonso and Raquel Cortés Gil; and at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, it was coordinated by María Arias Álvarez, Rosa Mª García García and Eva Ramos Alonso.